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<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Thanks,
Carl, for sharing this. While I know there’s big money in horse
racing, the exploitation and to date inherent cruelty of the “sport”
of horse and dog racing where animals are treated as “investments”
capable to turning a profit rather than as the sentient beings they are has always
been problematic for and nauseating to me. I’m saddened to hear
that yet another great horse lost her life so that we could be “entertained.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Maybe
– just maybe – Americans have finally had enough of these needless
deaths and will demand reform. If so, Eight Belles’ death won’t
have been for nothing.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>Saundra Lund<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>Moscow, ID<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good
people to do nothing.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>~ Edmund Burke<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>***** Original material contained herein is Copyright 2008
through life plus 70 years, Saundra Lund. Do not copy, forward, excerpt,
or reproduce outside the Vision 2020 forum without the express written
permission of the author.*****<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
</div>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>
vision2020-bounces@moscow.com [mailto:vision2020-bounces@moscow.com] <b>On
Behalf Of </b>Carl Westberg<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Monday, May 05, 2008 2:51 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> vision2020@moscow.com<br>
<b>Subject:</b> [Vision2020] Thoughts on horse racing<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>Never
been much of a fan of horse racing, and am even less so after what happened at
the Kentucky Derby on Saturday. Some thoughts from an ESPN
writer.........<strong><span style='font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> Monday,
May 5, 2008</span></strong><b><br>
</b>This time is different<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>By
Bill Finley<br>
Special to ESPN.com<br>
<br>
This one is different. This time, the people are not going to buy that tired,
old "it's part of the game" line. The public is outraged by the death
of Eight Belles in the Kentucky Derby and asking some very serious, very
appropriate questions about whether or not horse racing is tantamount to animal
cruelty. This is usually where the sport buries its collective head in
the sand, tells people how much everyone involved with the game loves their
horses, and hopes the controversy dies down. This time, that's not going to
work. The horse racing industry has to be proactive and take some severe
measures to make this sport safer and more humane for the animals that compete
and the humans that ride them. It has to send a message: We admit we have
a problem and we are going to fix it. To do nothing of substance is
unacceptable and will convince a large segment of the population that horse
racing, as a New York Times columnist suggested, isn't that different from
animal fighting. Horse racing must: 1. Ban all drugs. How can the sport
possibly justify allowing horses to race on steroids, painkillers and diuretics
that dehydrate the animal? With the exception of Canada, no other country in
the world allows anything but hay, oats and water. There can be no doubt that
the proliferation of drugs, illegal and otherwise, in the sport has contributed
to the increasing fragility of these animals. 2. Control excess use of the
whip. I doubt very much that the actions of Gabriel Saez in any way contributed
to the death of Eight Belles, but the sight of a jockey beating a horse in the
stretch with a whip contributes to racing's image problems. People for the
Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has already come out demanding that Seaz be
suspended for his use of the whip. Jockeys insist the whip is necessary to help
control their mounts, but do they really need to beat the tar out of a horse to
make them run harder than they would without the punishment? Is that not
inhumane? Many countries have rules against excessive use of the whip and
jockeys who have broken those rules have received severe punishments. The same
must now be done in this country. 3. Convert to synthetic tracks. Synthetic
tracks are obviously not perfect and they will never prevent all catastrophic
injuries, but they are considerably safer than traditional dirt surfaces. Would
Barbaro, George Washington and Eight Belles still be alive had the Kentucky
Derby, Breeders' Cup Classic and Preakness been run on a synthetic surface? The
answer is, quite possibly. Eight U.S. tracks have synthetic surfaces, but there
has been no movement to convert any additional tracks from dirt to synthetic.
Maybe it's time for more racing commissions to do what they did in California,
mandate that tracks must convert to a synthetic surface. 4. Promote longer
races. The breeding industry continues to accentuate speed over soundness and
stamina, no doubt another contributing factor to the alarming rate of
catastrophic injuries. Who can blame them? There are great rewards out there
for fast, precocious horses who need not go any further than a mile.
Once, the Jockey Club Gold Cup, one of the most important races on the
calendar, was run at two miles. No more. Even the mile-and-a-quarter distance
is starting to disappear. The only way breeders are going to start producing
sounder, sturdier horses is to create a system where those horses have much to
gain on the racetrack. We can start by making the Breeders' Cup Classic a mile
and a half, the Breeders' Cup Distaff a mile and a quarter and increasing the
distance of many other major races. 5. Take meaningful strides to stop the
slaughter of horses. Though there are some very generous and good-hearted
people in the sport, the industry has, by and large, a deplorable record when
it comes to dealing with the issues of caring for its retirees. Retirement
organizations are largely left to fend for themselves, scraping pennies
together will little financial support from the industry. The result is there
is not enough money out there to prevent the deaths of thousands of racehorses
each year in the slaughterhouse. People are tired of seeing horses die. Perhaps
some of the reactions that have come from the Eight Belles situation are over
the top, but that's not the point. Horseracing has to react to public
sentiment, something it has never been very good at doing. It has to do so
because it's the right thing to do for the horses and because it has to deal
with a public relations nightmare. Are we that far from the point where
sponsors pull their ads from Triple Crown telecasts because of pressure put on
them by animal rights activists and/or the media outcry over all these deaths?
Horseracing has come to a crossroad. It had better go down the right
path. <i>Bill Finley is an award-winning racing writer whose work has appeared
in the New York Times, USA Today and Sports Illustrated. Contact Bill at <a
href="mailto:wnfinley@aol.com">wnfinley@aol.com</a></i><a
href="mailto:wnfinley@aol.com"><br>
</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>Make
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